How do I make a what's-in-the-box image showing every item in the package?
Photograph each item on its own against white, then combine the shots in the collage maker with 1:1 cells, “Contain whole image” and a white background. A long item such as a cable or a strap then shows in full next to a small one such as an adapter or the manual, with no ends cut off.
Why contain and not crop here
A contents image is a promise about what the customer will find when they open the box, so every item has to be shown whole. And the items vary wildly in shape: a cable is long and thin, a charger small and square, the box itself rectangular. In the default crop mode each photo fills its cell and the excess is trimmed around the center, so the cable loses both ends and may not even be recognisable.
6 items in 3 columns, a 1500 width, a 20 gap, a 20 margin and a 1:1 cell: the output is 1500 × 1008, and each cell is about 474 × 474.
A 1200 × 400 landscape shot of a cable in crop mode keeps only its middle 400 px, a third of the cable. In contain mode it is drawn whole at 474 × 158 in the middle of the cell, with white above and below. A 500 × 1500 portrait shot of a pen is drawn at 158 × 474 the same way.
The steps
- Photograph each item alone on a white surface under the same light, filling the frame with the item as much as you can.
- Crop each photo tightly around the item with the Image cropper, so no spare space shrinks the item inside its cell.
- Open the Image collage maker maker, add the photos and order them: the main product first at top left, then the accessories from largest to smallest.
- Choose “Grid” with 3 columns, a 1:1 cell shape, “Contain whole image” and a white background.
- Set gap and margin to 20 and the width to 1500, then download as JPEG.
Why the tight crop and white background matter
Contain shrinks the whole photo to fit the cell, including any empty space around the item. If the item fills only half of its photo, it appears at half the size in its cell, and small items look even smaller. Cropping first makes the item the photo. White in both the photos and the collage hides the cell edges, so the result looks like one shot of items laid out on a white table rather than separate pictures in boxes.
Alternatives depending on what is in your box
- One large main product and a few accessories: try the “One large + small” layout. With 4 photos, a 1500 width, a 20 gap and a 20 margin the main product's cell is 960 × 1480 and each of the three accessories gets 480 × 480.
- An item count that does not divide by 3: untick stretching the last row so items stay a similar size; the empty cell disappears into the white background.
- Lots of tiny parts such as screws: shoot them together in one photo and give them a single cell, since a collage holds only 12 images.
Common questions
Will the items show at their real relative sizes?
No. Each item is scaled to fit its cell, so an adapter can look as big as the box. If relative size matters, photograph the items together in one shot or give the dimensions in the description.
Does the tool label the items?
No, it does not add text. List the contents in the product description in the same order as the photos.
Should I use a transparent background?
Only if the item photos themselves are cut out with no background. With ordinary photos their backgrounds show inside the cells, and transparency does not work with JPEG.